Tag Archive for: self-defense

– I post a new This Week In Martial Arts every Saturday morning. When you’re done with this one, go back and check out all the other cool links I’ve pulled over the past few months by going through the This Week In Martial Arts tag.

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This Week In Martial Arts

Source: Rockitboy

David Lee Roth is the best martial artist in rock. So says Sarah Kurchak of Fightland, who’s assembled a profile of the Van Halen front man’s martial arts pedigree. As of 2002, Roth was still very active in the arts:

I’m talking to you here from the Mojo Dojo, which is my house in Pasadena … To this day, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 in the morning, I train in Brazilian jujitsu, and then at 8:15, my Portuguese teacher comes over. She just left, and it’s my last lesson before we go out on the tour. Two nights a week, I have a kendo instructor come here, who’s in his 60s, and I have a kendo hall that I built in my house here.

Kurchak’s profile noted, like all good martial artists, hitting himself in the nose with his own mic stand (later requiring 14 stitches) couldn’t stop Diamond Dave.

Source: MegJitsu

Martial arts build muscle. Just four weeks of training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu “was sufficient to promote a significant increase in muscle strength in the bench press and seated row exercises in beginners,” according to a study released this month in the Journal of Exercise Physiology. The report also noted that 12 weeks of tai chi chuan boasted similar benefits. Thanks to Jason Thalken for posting.

Source: YouTube

One World Series of Fighting contestant busted out a cradle piledriver during a prelim match. I don’t know who either of those fighters are, but they’re no Jerry Lynn.Thanks to Uproxx for the heads-up on that one.

There are no legal ramifications to being a trained martial artist. A common misconception among the general population – and perpetuated by this StackExchange post – is that martial artists must “register their hands as lethal weapons,” but in my research, none of that is true. In fact, I’ve read before. Some schools use it as an oath from their students to their instructor, but the oath apparently carries no legal backing. If you’re in Illinois, you have to make sure you can defend your actions as being reasonable in case criminal charges are filed.

A person is justified in the use of force against another when and to the extent that he reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or another against such other’s imminent use of unlawful force.

I’d like to post more in-depth about this, so I’ve made a note to do some more research.

Source: Meetville

This is what women’s self-defense in 1947 looked like, according to this video. Thanks to Mr. Dave Hawkey for passing that along.

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The multiple-time USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame inductee says helps boost her self-confidence by proving to herself that she can do it.

Kim Aldus

Mrs. Aldus joins me for a roughly 40-minute conversation about different topics.

On competing as a female: “There is a tendency for guys to be a little more swayed against females doing competition,” she says. “For the most part, they’ve kind of pushed me along and encouraged me to do things I didn’t think I could do.”

On paving a path for martial artists who are women: “I’m not out there just for me. I’m out there for all women. Too many guys say women shouldn’t be in the martial arts. ‘Really? I’m gonna show you.'”

On teaching self-defense to men: “Guys need to know this. So many guys don’t know how to hit properly or exactly what they should do to get out of a situation.”

On judging at competitions: “You just might be that little bit of a spark that pushes them on to achieve great things.”

On Vera Harrison: “She was one of the people who inspired me,” says Mrs. Aldus. “She’s always been there in the back of my martial arts career.”

On external vs. internal arts: “One of the things that I’ve learned is it all comes full circle,” she says. “One’s not better than the other.”

On Kathy Long at USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame: “I’m excited… I know that Kathy Long has an interest in Harley Davidson motorcycles. Yes!”

I am headed to LaSalle today for a DDPYoga workshop. I’ve been doing it for about 20 months at this point, and this will my be first event I’ve attended live. Part of me kind of hopes DDP walks around giving Diamond Cutters to everyone for three hours.

Plugs and Upcoming Events

I’m also competing in Galesburg next month. I’m going to push myself to compete with a form I’ve rarely or never performed for competition.

Now, let’s take a look back at this week in martial arts.

This Week in Martial Arts

(Mashable)

Mitt Romney will attempt to box Evander Holyfield. The Salt Lake Tribune reported this week that the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee will face Olympic medalist and one of the most decorated boxers in history.

“It will either be a very short fight, or I will be knocked unconscious.” -Mitt Romney

The match will be part of a fundraising event for Charity Vision.

How do martial artists break concrete blocks? One of the most impressive feats of any demonstration – one put on during your town’s local fair or a high school motivational speech, for example – is a person slamming through a stack of concrete blocks. Slate, by way of Quora, revealed how it’s done. I’m sure some old timers are gasping in horror that a “martial arts secret” has been lifted – similar to how some wrestling fans and performers lament the death of kayfabe – but the truth is that martial arts boil down to science. And this Quora commenter knows far more about force the engineering of a concrete block than I do, so enjoy hearing how it’s done. (Side note: Many people have asked me if I’ve broken concrete. When I say yes, it’s like they think I parted the Red Sea. Breaking concrete with your body alone can be intimidating, but with practice, you can do it.)

Let’s learn judo with Vladimir Putin. While Putin isn’t the first world leader to learn martial arts (see here), he does appear to be the first to have released his own instructional video on a martial art. FIGHTLAND’s Sarah Kurchak reviewed the 82-minute video this week. Sarah’s final review?

You’d probably get more from watching any other judo instruction video on YouTube on mute than from watching this.

Watch this monkey kick a pad. Thanks to my friend Karl for passing that along. Karl and others have been sending me videos lately, so I’ll be including them in these posts.

(Cracked)

Here are 16 self-defense tips. Cracked may be one of the most unlikely sources for this information, but it’s all practical stuff. In what appears to be a crowdsourced article, the contributors make plenty of good points you’d typically hear in a martial arts class – keep your kicks low, strike hard weapons to soft targets (and vice versa), the importance of breath and shouting, and more.

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